Muscle Body Tips
Discover the Secrets to Building Rock Hard Muscle! Learn Exactly What The Pro’s Do
Prohormones
The new approach to fat loss and muscle building! Prohormones are precursor compounds that are converted by the body into anabolic hormones. In terms of muscle-building and fat loss effects, prohormones are similar to steroids, and will produce increases in muscle size and strength. And depending on the specific type, also have the capability to reduce body fat, increase sex drive, and boost training intensity levels. Prohormones can be divided into three broad categories – the andro group, the 19-nor group, and the testosterone boosting group. The andro group are converted by the body into natural hormones, including testosterone. The 19-nors are converted by the body into numerous anabolic compounds including nandrolone. Nandrolone is one of the main ingredients in the popular anabolic steroid Deca-durabolin (nandrolone deconate). The third group of compounds don’t convert to testosterone or nandrolone. Instead they stimulate the body to naturally increase production of the male hormone for fat loss and muscle building. The most popular product in this category is the herb tribulus terrestrus. Since prohormones became popular in the mid 1990′s, supplement manufacturers have been waging a “prohormone” war in their attempt to sway bodybuilders to the merits of their particular “best” prohormone. Like most over-the-counter supplements, the scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of these products is mixed at best. Some studies suggest that these products will in fact increase testosterone or nandrolone levels, and therefore increase muscular size and strength. Other studies show no benefits. The most popular prohormones currently available include: 1-androstenediol (1-AD) In terms of side effects, the “diols” seem to have less side effects than the “diones” as they show much less conversion to the female hormone estrogen. The diols seem to be more potent for fat loss and muscle building as well. Of course individual genetics often play a major role in how each compound will respond in an individual’s body.
The law © Bob Howard 5/5/2006
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Body Building Workout TechniquesTry and name a sport that you can participate in even if you are an old person. Chances are, you will have a hard time naming even one. But if you named bodybuilding, you are dead on right. Bodybuilding is the art and science of developing the musculature of your body via certain kinds of physical exertion and diet whose end goal is to showcase the body for competitive exhibition. The most popular kind of bodybuilding exercise is weightlifting or weight training. What makes bodybuilding so appealing is that it is a sport that everyone of any age can participate in. The only requirements are that one be in relatively good physical condition, has access to gym equipment, and can financially afford the lifestyle it demands. What are the different types of bodybuilding workouts? Well, it depends first on whether your body type is that of an ectomorph, endomorph, or mesomorph. An ectomorph is considered the slow gainer among bodybuilding types. He needs to slow down his hyper metabolism in order to gain muscle size and strength. This means his exercise routine should be severe enough to trigger muscle growth yet short enough to avoid nervous drain. An endomorph, on the other hand, has a sluggish metabolism. He needs some kind of stimulating exercise every session in order to rev up his metabolism. Also, an endomorph should restrict his calorie intake due to an over-efficient digestive system that makes him gain weight easily. The luckiest among the body types (as far as bodybuilding is concerned) is the mesomorph. A true mesomorph is able to gain muscle even with little effort on his part. Mesomorphs can be said to be gifted with muscle-building abilities, the Chosen People of bodybuilding. No one belongs solely to one body type. Most people can be said to be a mixture of the three. However, one body type usually dominates a person’s build so that it is relatively easy to categorize bodybuilders. Despite one’s body type, there are common techniques to follow when bodybuilding. These are: 1. Keep a training diary so that you can monitor your progress and determine what you should aim for in the future. 2. Pay attention when lifting any kind of weight to avoid injury. Carelessness is probably the foremost cause of injuries in bodybuilding. 3. Choose the types of exercises that can contract as many muscle fibers as possible during one set. This will maximize the effectiveness of the core repetitions which make up most of one’s training. 4. Warm up properly prior to doing any exercise to prevent injury. 5. Don’t change the technique of doing any exercise unless you know what you are doing. Experimenting is another cause of injury. 6. Don’t do those exercises which are known to cause tendon or joint damage. 7. Good exercise style prevents injury. So keep proper form while exercising. 8. Learn to distinguish between the pain caused by lactic acid build-up within the muscle, and the pain caused by a serious injury. Mistaking one for the other could cause you to keep exercising despite being injured, thereby worsening the injury. Rest if you are injured. 9. Practice stretching before working out. This also helps you ward off injuries. Hopefully, these tips will help you enjoy participating in the sport of bodybuilding
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Women Bodybuilding: Then & NowEveryone has either heard of or is familiar with the sport of competitive bodybuilding. The female component, which is known as women bodybuilding, began in the late 1970s as women began to participate in competitions. Now, more than three decades later, women bodybuilding is a large part of the sport and has begun to garner the respect that it has strived for since it’s inception. Although physique contests for women can actually be documented in the 1960s, they were little more than bikini contests. The first true women bodybuilding competition is regarded as the one held in Canton, Ohio in 1978. Promoted by Henry McGhee, the first United States Women’s National Physique Championship was the first competition where the entrants were judged solely on their muscularity as opposed to how well they looked in swimsuits. By 1979, more women bodybuilding competitions were being held. The sport, however, did not possess a sanctioning body until 1980. Known as the National Physique Committee, this organization hosted the first women’s nationals and became the top amateur level competition for women bodybuilding in the United States. Additionally, 1980 marked the first Ms. Olympia competition, which is the most honored competition for women bodybuilding professionals. As the sport continued to grow and increase in overall popularity, competitors found themselves needing to train harder and improve their overall muscular physique. By the 1980s, women bodybuilding was no longer a bikini contest or seeing who could pose in the highest heels. Now, it was becoming a popular sport with championship titles and increasing fan attendance. With films that have been produced in honor of women bodybuilding competitions, coverage on major television networks and despite some controversies along the way, women bodybuilding has more than proven it’s ability to remain in the ranks of this popular sport. As further proof, the IFBB established a Hall of Fame in 1999, which would honor bodybuilding’s top athletes. To date, 14 women bodybuilding competitors have been inducted. Among them, Carla Dunlap, Cory Everson and Rachel McLish, Bev Francis, Lisa Lyon and Abbye Stockton, Kay Baxter, Diana Dennis, Kike Elomaa, Laura Combes, Lynn Conkwright, Ellen Van Maris, Stacy Bentley and Claudia Wilbourn. In late 2004, the IFBB introduced a new rule that required women bodybuilding participants decrease their amount of muscularity by 20%, which is now referred to simply as the ’20% rule.’ The rule applies to those whose physique requires the decrease. In 2005, another rule was introduced that would abolish the weight class system beginning with the 2005 Ms. Olympia. In addition to women bodybuilding, there are two additional categories that are closely related and often held as part of the same event. The fitness competition includes a swimsuit round, along with a round that has the entrants judged on their performance in aerobics, dance or gymnastics. The second category is a figure competition, which is a newer format, and has the participants being judged exclusively on their symmetry and muscle tone. This category focuses less on muscle size than does women bodybuilding. Although women bodybuilding has continued to grow in popularity, the prize money remains significantly less than is awarded to male bodybuilders.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Don’t Wait – Hit the Weights!Despite the legitimate arguments put forward by researchers and fitness experts over the past decade about the benefits of weight training for women, the number of women who decide to venture over to the strength section is still quite low. Most women who exercise tend to divide their time between cardio machines and aerobics’ classes. Rarely do they use any type of resistance training to challenge their bodies. But resistance training is not just limited to hoisting iron next to some 250-pound bodybuilder, or trying to figure out how to use intimidating machines. There are many options that can be explored. The key to developing total women’s fitness is a good combination of cardiovascular training and eating healthy to lose weight, and yes, weight training! The Big Eight: Fat loss: Bone builder: Athletic performance: Injury prevention: A healthy heart: Diabetes Prevention: A mental boost: It’s fun!
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments 6 Pack Abs Workouts – Get a Six Pack of Washboard AbsAlthough exercise is a part of the plan, diet is critical to achieving a low level of body fat and attaining a six pack of shredded abs. Concentrate on green and colorful, non starchy veggies for your main meals and snacks including some complex carbs such as yams and brown rice to round out the plate. Fruit is okay but keep it before noon and only 1 pc per day at most since the sugars in fruit can hinder your goals. Clean meats such as poultry and fish are a better choice for your proteins vs fattier choices. You should also consider protein shakes to help with the intake needed. Cardiovascular work is your next concern. If you are in need of 20+ lbs of fat loss then you need to work up to 3-5 days of 45 mins moderate cardio work preferably jogging which is your most effective fat burner especially if you wish to see fast results. The appearance of a 6 packs or tummy lines is very finicky so these tips are crucial. You can decrease the cardio to 20 mins 3-5 times per week if you are already quite lean. In order to make your abs protrude you need to thicken those squares with weighted ab exercises. Try this program for a month and see how you can tighten your mid section in now time by incorporating the suggestions above. Warm up with 3×20 of the Bent Knee Abdominal Hip Raises making sure those hips flick up off the mat as seen in the clip. Also ensure you are pulling your belly button into your lower back during these exercises. Next you would follow that with 3-4 sets of 12 Reverse Decline Crunches. You can see again how the hips flick up off the board. This is important to achieve but if you are unable to at first you keep it in mind and keep working at that. Watch to not speed on the down phase. If you can, hold the knees for a second or 2 at the top to really enhance the work. Inverted Exercise Ball Leg Pull Ins is third and you do need some upper body strength but the good news is that this exercise combines to help strengthen the chest and arms while your abs do the work to pull in the ball. Take your time with this and do each rep with a count of 1, 2, 3 – 1, 2, 3, 4 on return. Breathing out during exertion will enhance the effect. Perform 3 x 10. Fingers to Toes Abdominal Crunches are also known as V sits, you want to keep chest out, shoulders somewhat back and settled while reaching upward and making sure your arms and legs return at the same time. Work on being able to hold this at the top for a few seconds then repeat. 3×10 is to be done with this exercise. To make this program well rounded you would want to add 2 oblique exercises and in many cases lower back but for this particular program I focused the time on frontal core. Elbow To Knee Oblique Crunches is a nice basic yet intense addition to round out the workout. 3 x10 should be done for this exercise. Finishing this program is one of the most intense exercises on this page. Hanging Oblique Knee Raises are counted per side so if you have 10 you do 10 per side! You cannot throw your legs up or you will swing and make things harder so control is a must! 3×5-10 will most likely be all you can get done at this stage since we pre exhausted the middle area with all the above exercises. Try this for a month then change your program again to focus on other weak areas. You can reintroduce this program or try a newer AB program later along the line since you want to change things at least every 4 weeks. Shapefit.com has an excellent arsenal of abdominal exercises to help you toward your goal of 6 pack abs.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Nervous System Training Versus Body Part TrainingIt is important to understand the two different aspects of training that is involved when you are trying to build bigger muscles. The two aspects are your nervous system versus your body part training. Both need to be incorporated in a holistic routine in order to maximize growth. In this article, we are going to demonstrate briefly some of the things that you need to consider. The first thing to consider when examining your routine is the training effect on the nervous system. With the beginning trainee, their nervous system’s capacity to handle intense exercise is quite limited. Therefore, it makes sense that the individual should be working on their nervous system capacity as opposed to body part training. Unfortunately, most athletes or beginning trainees make the mistake of trying to copy a cookie cutter routine out of the magazines or a routine of a professional bodybuilder. The problem with following a pro’s routine is that the routine generally far exceeds the capacity of the individual’s ability to train. The individual quickly spirals into overtraining, gets discouraged, and sometimes quits training altogether. Not an inspiring success story, that is for sure. Why is it that a novice trainee or even an intermediate bodybuilder over trains when following a pro’s routine? All things being equal it is because the advanced athlete or pro’s nervous system capacity for work is much higher than the aspiring trainees. The professional has probably spent 10 years minimum increasing his body’s capacity for training. So, what does nervous system training involve? Well specifically with the beginner, almost any type of training will work. This fact is one of the biggest reasons there is so much confusion in training modalities in the body building market. Typically, any training that you perform at first places demands that are so much higher than your regular nervous system output, some results inevitably occur. Unfortunately, most athletes have incorporated a great deal of bad habits in this early training, which ultimately spells failure down the road. For best results over the short and long term the beginner and intermediate trainee should incorporate training that increases the nervous system’s capacity for training. So what does this nervous system training include? Nervous system training typically involves training specific exercises through specific planes and motions with an eye on frequency, volume, and exercise selection. In other words, what is typically called multi-joint exercises are incorporated as the foundation of the training. These would be your classic exercises like squats, bent over rows, pull-downs, dips, benches; these sort of multi-joint exercises. When system training, one should train groups of body parts together to maximize the overload for a specific area. In other words, you would train body parts such as chest, shoulders and triceps on one day; back, biceps on another day, and legs on another day. There are lots of different ways you can mix this up, depending on the amount of time you have available as well as how long you wish to work out and also at how fast you wish to progress. Another consideration when training the nervous system is that one has to pay particular attention on the frequency of training. Generally, you need to keep the frequency relatively high. That means hitting the body parts a minimum of twice a week. In some cases, you can go as high as three times a week; once again, depending on how much volume, how intensely a person is training, and the nutrition levels of the athlete. Of course, with nervous system training, one has to build up gradually. So in a very new athlete, nervous system training might incorporate whole body training only three times per week. As a person progresses and more volume can be handled, the body parts are typically split up. So on the three-day program, it would be maybe full body workouts; on a four-day, it would be maybe upper body and lower body. Afterwards, you would go to maybe a five or even six-day routine for the serious athlete. This allows a significantly higher frequency and also the ability to bomb body parts over and over again with varying rep ranges. The other aspect of building a symmetrical physique to look at is individualized body part training. Size of course is not everything; especially in the body building world. One wants to have the physique look aesthetically pleasing as well as developing large muscles. So in body part training, the exercise selection becomes more isolated. Generally there is more volume of sets in a body part session and the body parts are trained less frequency. So to sum it up, you do more exercises, more volume in isolating particular body parts. Typically at this more advanced stage, a person is looking to sculpt the physique, work on specific weak points, to balance the physique and to create a more symmetrical look. Also, this increases the separation and general appearance of each of the muscle groups. In body part training, typically the frequency that you hit a body part is much less than you would on nervous system training. So a body part might only get hit once a week, but that one session would be extremely intense, overloading that muscle in every possible manner and then moving on to the next body part on the following day. Typically in body part training, you would cycle more exercises through a rotation of maybe three, four or five weeks, going back and forth so that maximal development of every aspect of the physique is achieved. Now in order to create balanced growth as well as size, one must alternate back and forth between the nervous system training and body part training. This is so that a person can achieve maximal growth as well as minimizing any detriments to the physique. Always, you have body parts that are growing better than others and so the isolation body part training can allow you to re-evaluate your weak points and overcome these inherent weaknesses in your physique. By doing so, we build not only a large body but also a symmetrical body. The question then arises; how do I know when and where to switch between nervous system training and body part training? There is no set rule on this however; one must look at it from this point; typically, the more inexperienced a trainee is, the more time they need to spend on nervous system training. Most trainees will benefit from two or three years of primarily nervous system training. So for example, one might spend three to six months just on nervous system training alone and briefly switch to a body part training for maybe 12 weeks before going back to another nervous system training routine. You would repeat this for a year or so, and then gradually working more body part training sessions in with the nervous system training. Another thing to consider is during nervous system training, calorie restrictions is definitely not recommended. An overload of nutrients and calories is required in order to maximize growth. Often times during nervous system, we are not so much concerned with the finer aspects of physiques or physique building. Therefore, you pile in the calories to keep as much anabolic activity occurring so that the maximum amount of growth is achieved. After several years of cycling between training styles one would benefit by making the switch to body part training and incorporate a low calorie diet. This factors a couple of things; one, you strip down the layer of body fat that has been built to reveal what is really muscle. Most people overestimate how much muscle they have and underestimate how much fat and water they have on their physique. At this stage in the athlete’s career it is beneficial that a low calorie regimen be followed at least for 12-20 weeks per year. By doing this frequently, it allows an individual to see the imbalances in physiques and correct them. The other aspect too is that it also helps the athlete to lower the metabolic step point; therefore, the individual in the next nervous system training will not have to consume as much food as he/she would if were continually staying on the nervous system training protocol. This of course arrives at the next aspect of the training equation. Whether training to failure or not training to failure. Unfortunately, there is a lot of myths about the whole failure and intensity aspect of training. Article after article bombards the beginning and advanced trainee alike about the importance of training to failure. People are thought if they do not train to failure, they are not training intense enough or that they are some kind of wimp. Of course this type of mentality has nothing to do with science and as a matter of fact, will almost guarantee that the athlete reach a stagnantation point. Optimally, the trainee never goes to failure and here is a couple of the reasons why: First, when an individual is training naturally, the model of training is significantly different than the athlete who is using drugs. Most articles are written about pro-athletes or top amateurs who are using an incredible amount of drugs and therefore, really distort the science behind training. Because of this massive use of drugs, they endocrine systems operate completely different than that of the natural trainee and they are able to recover from mega high intensity training sessions. Unfortunately over time, this endocrine system overload creates an eventual catabolic condition. If you check out any of the pros after their career, you can see how much muscle they actually lose. It is quite shocking. Often times, because of this lop-sided aspect of the endocrine system overload, the athlete’s career is stopped short due to disease. I cannot tell you how many body builders careers have been ended prematurely due to massive influx of drugs which eventually led to some system failure. So once again, going back to the failure question; a person should train their exercises so that the last rep on every set is challenging, but it is not an all out effort. Now in order to get the intensity up volume is the key. So lots of sets for lots of reps is far more efficient and be far effective than short training sessions with max intensity. The scientific term of course is work out efficiency, but really the scientific term is not important. The second aspect that needs to be addressed her is destroying the one hour workout myth. Once again, magazines and articles perpetuate this idea that the 45 minutes to one hour is all the time a person needs to build big muscles. This of course borders on ridiculousness. If one looks at, for example in the real world, an athlete such as an Olympic speed skater, these athletes perform incredibly high amounts of volume and incredible high amounts of frequency. Not only that, their time under tension far exceeds what most body builder’s workouts do. One other factor is speed skaters are performing an extensive amount of overload each day and very seldom does that athlete go to failure. Yet, look at the results. Speed skaters have some of the most largely developed legs in the entire world. Right there is a real world example that indicates that failure is not required and that training a few hours a week to achieve maximum development is a myth. I have yet to see any athlete that has trained a few hours and matched the legs of the world’s top speed skaters. Once again here is a real world example that goes back to natural training versus drug usage. Not exceeding the endocrine system’s capacity to recover is critical in natural training. This is easier achieved if you train lots of sets and quite frequently. Bill Pearl, one of the greatest bodybuilding champions of all time, was a big believer in this principle and he reached a weight of 242 pounds at a height of 5’10″. Keep in mind that Bill Pearl never used any drugs to build his physique. An even more impressive consideration is that his physique was built in a time where the emphasis was not on the legs. In actuality, Bill probably had a 265-pound physique if you accounted for the lack of leg development that was in vogue during the late 60′s and early 70′s. So once again for maximum results, a person needs to destroy the one-hour workout myth. Now, in the optimal situation, of course the individual would cycle between the two systems for maximal growth. So let us review the key points to get you on track and in the growth zone. To maximize the growth, you need to go to nervous system training, high volume, exercise-specific techniques that involve body parts grouped together. Body part training is going to be relatively between two to three times per week. Volume is going to be high and never train to failure. Also, there is going to be a massive amount of nutrient factors and calories. Body part training is more isolated, it tends to be large amounts of volume and less frequency. Most people’s best results occur with training each body part one day per week in a 5 day or 6 day split. Low calorie dieting is best performed during body part training to strip away fat to discover the weaknesses in the individual’s physique. Duration of this cycle should be 12-20 weeks. Thais training cycle is most often used for contest preparation and is too be combined with cardio sessions to maximize definition. Of course there is a lot more details to training such as rep ranges, exercise selection, body part groupings, training splits etc. But first the individual needs to grasp the big picture. This is where and expert can save the athlete years of frustration. Word to the wise no athlete has got to the top of there sport without professional expert advice. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that you can read a magazine or a bodybuilding book and then no everything to build a great body. Hire a top trainer today that has experience in building top quality physiques and practices what he/she preaches.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Weight Lifting Routine – How to Lift Like a GuyHave you ever watched guys in the gym? Of course you have! We’ve all seen them strutting over to the squat rack or bench press and try to lift so much weight that we think their eyeballs might pop out of their heads from the strain. Although we may silently snicker at their obvious attempts to impress us with their brute strength, we can take away something very valuable from their approach to a weight lifting routine. Guys generally have a “get it done and move on” attitude that they apply to most things in life including their weight lifting routine. Women, on the other hand, tend to dither around and analyze everything to the point of driving themselves mad. So how can we apply a guy’s easy going attitude to reap the maximum benefit for our own fitness goals? Learn How to Lift like a Guy! That’s right! Elbow your way over to the big free weights and dig in just like he does. While you might not be able to lift as much as your guy, you can certainly enjoy the two-fold benefit of lifting like a guy. Benefit #1: More muscle mass and less body fat. More muscle mass will use more calories at rest and that can equate to less overall body fat. Don’t worry about lifting heavy weights and becoming a muscle bound beast because women’s bodies simply don’t produce enough testosterone to create muscle mass on par with Hulk Hogan. Women bodybuilders with huge muscle mass are supporting that mass with anabolic steroids, so unless that’s the look you’re going for, it simply won’t be a problem. In the world of natural womens fitness, a weight lifting routine with emphasis on heavy weights will only result in less body fat and beautiful, sexy curves. Benefit #2: Spend less time in the gym. By applying the “get it done and move on” attitude to your weight lifting routine, you can reap maximum benefit in less time. Guys tend to go for compound exercises that work more than one body part at a time and they lift enough weight that their muscles fatigue in a shorter amount of time. The result? More muscle mass in less time! Pick a compound exercise and use enough weight that completing one set of 8 to 10 reps is a challenge. Rest for 30 to 60 seconds then try to do one more set of 8 to 10 reps. Don’t freak out if you can’t complete the entire second set. That only means that your muscles are sufficiently fatigued. Move on because you’re done with that exercise. Ditch the wimpy pastel colored weights ladies! Grab some heavy weights and modify your weight lifting routine to include guy-style compound exercises. You’ll be amazed at the results if done regularly.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments The Secrets To Achieving A Stunning Physique In Record TimeWhen you see people who have already sculpted their muscles and have beautiful appearance as a result, it is a sight worth beholding. While you may desire to be like these people, you may not be able to because wishing does not bring about reality, only action does. If you want a stunning physique, then you must be willing to put in whatever it takes to achieve it and be admired by others. Hard work is the word used to describe the reality of a sculpted muscle. You will need to be committed and be able to follow through. Initially, the work will be difficult for you to accomplish but as time goes on with consistency and practice you will start feeling better. This is because your body is gradually adapting to the whole routine. This routine will be a regular dose of good diet and exercise. You will also notice obvious changes in your body such as reduction in weight, sculpturing, restoration of curves. In the course of exercising and dieting, you will learn to set a balanced plan on these activities as you combine cardio-workouts, endurance, strength training, aerobics, etc. For the dieting plan, include proteins, fats, vitamins, carbohydrates, cholesterol and so on to make up for a balanced diet. You will need to know how each of these food components affect you as a muscle builder. You want to discover vital information as what quantity of each you need in your system to help you achieve your goal of building a stunning and sculpted appearance. The work of fats in your body is that it absorbs all the vitamins such as A, D, E, & K. All of these vitamins can be obtained from fatty foods in the form of fat-soluble solution and from diary products. Fat produces acids in the body too. Such acids as linoleic, amino acids. These acids serve useful purposes in the body. Carbohydrates is another food components that should be included in the diets. However, there should be small portion of this in your food as too much of it can cause obesity. Adequate use can be very positive as it provides energy and helps build insulin that combats diabetes. Protein is also vital as this too produces amino acids in the body. But more importantly, it helps in the growth of body tissues and muscles and renews these tissues as they wear out. Various other components of the food is also necessary but you have to know what quantity of it you need to reach your goal. Once the issue of dieting has been settled, you would want to go ahead with the normal exercise to fully sculpt your muscles. Concentrate on the whole muscles system instead of one part of the body. In your workout exercise, include strength training as part of your routines. It will help you to fully advance in your muscle building activity by giving strength to the muscles. Watch your weights as you progress in your activity and make sure you maintain a particular weight. You can move on to other workout activity like resistance and endurance training to maximise your potential.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Natural Bodybuilding The Key To Endless Growth Part IIIn the first part of this installment we examined how to build a road map to get to your destination. We talked about training the nervous system, innervation of specific body parts for symmetry, and advanced stage training. In Part II we are going to examine the most common challenge bodybuilders face which is nutrition. Unfortunately there is so much confusion about what to eat, when to eat , how much to eat and on and on that it is almost impossible to sort out what to do. Also eating to grow is very different the eating to get shredded so the key point to remember is that your diet needs to evolve with your physique. Consistency and self discipline on your eating is two biggest keys to long term success on whatever eating program that you are following. Bodybuilders who are successful always plan ahead and have meals prepared well in advance. If you don’t plan out your meals and have them with you at all times you will invariably fail in giving yourself the best possible gains. Hoping that restaurants, or friends or relatives will be serving “bodybuilding food” is unrealistic and leads to frustration as well as no progress. Almost every person I have every met that could not gain weight or lose weight was simply because they did not prepare there food in advance. It sounds simple, and it is simple but few overlook this critical point. Don’t be one of those people who doesn’t prepare there meals in advance. In the Freaky Big Naturally training course there is a whole section on food prep to keep you on your eating program. I learned these food preparation and food avoidance skills over years of trial and error. Many people think that it is a matter of will power or won’t power but in reality it is simple preparation beforehand. Here is a few simple rules to remember” 1. Always carry 1-2 meals with you more than you think you will need. This way any delays in your schedule will not throw your eating off. 2. Always eat before you go shopping, to the movies, or to other social occasions where non nutritious food will be served this way you will reduce any cravings for junk. 3. Prepare food in bulk and use Tupperware containers so that you can grab quick meals at any time. Also you will find it takes very little extra time to prepare 10 meals as it does one meal. This savings in time will actually make your life way more efficient and your eating plan easy to stick too. 4. Get off all artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners cause cravings for sugar, mess up your metabolism and brain function, and may have negative effects on your overall health. Cut them out of your diet immediately and switch to Stevia, or Raw Honey for sweetening. NO Diet Sodas. 5. Drink plenty of water each day. Most often dehydration is misinterpreted as hunger. Slug back a liter of water 30 minutes before eating or when you feel hungry and you will see how it curbs appetite significantly. 6. Place nutritious snacks in you car, your office desk at your house basically everywhere that you spend a considerable amount of time. You will quickly develop the habit of eating healthy and junk foods will quickly lose there appeal. 7. Schedule a regular junk food meal once per week. This is a powerful lesson that starts building the will to understand delayed gratification. Every time you have a craving for junk food simply right it down and schedule to eat it on a set day. By the end of the week you can review the list and go eat those foods guilt free. Often times by the junk food day you won’t want the food or it won’t taste as good as you anticipated. Over time you will develop more control over your cravings and reduce negative guilt associations with food. This list isn’t the be all and end all of eating but it gives you a start to work with. Keep in mind that your eating program should evolve over time. Your body will naturally adjust from desiring different types of foods depending on a variety of factors such as season, nutrient levels, PH balance of the body, training demands, and conditioning levels to name a few. Recording how food affects you as biofeedback is critical in understanding the powerful effects of food on your mood and your performance. Review your eating journal regularly so that you become aware of your patterns of eating as well developing awareness of how each food effects your body. Clients are always surprised at how much they can learn about food just by charting there eating patterns for a few months. One final note is too remember you must master eating and training first before supplements can be effective. So many people try the other way around and wind up frustrated. No supplement can make up for a poor diet or poor training so vow to master these two facets first before wasting money on supplements. Once you master your diet than the right supplement at the right time can do wonders to improve performance but seldom does the supplement deliver when the diet is poor. In the third part of this installment we will look at having a big reason why. The key to realizing your full physical potential.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Side Effects of Creatine Monohydrate Supplementation, Are They A Myth?Don’t get me wrong I’m not going to play the devil’s advocate and come out and tell you that creatine monohydrate is actually awful and cancer causing and to avoid taking it for the sake of your life because such statements simply can’t be made. Study after study has now proven the effectiveness of creatine in assisting athletic performance in many ways and supplement junkies and health professionals are alike are recommending it to their best friends. While the benefits and potential outcomes of creatine monohydrate are touted by every supplement salesman around, much less is said about the other side of creatine, potential side effects, health complications, and do’s and don’ts fly much less under the radar even though they are things that need to be known by anyone considering the now popular form of supplementation. In its essence creatine as we all know by now is a naturally occuring compound and so has no dire effects under any circumstances to any human body. What I mean by the other side of creatine are things like: Side effects of Creatine Monohydrate and Caffeine? Some articles have suggested a relationship between creatine and caffeine that bears negative side effects. Actually being a misinterpretation, what was stated in a scientific study was that creatine absorbtion into muscle tissue may have been slowed down by the presence of caffeine in the bloodstream. Scientists have since discovered that creatine can be just as easily absorbed in the presence of caffeine as any substance and that the results of the original study may have been influenced by any number of other factors. Will I get cramps as a side effect while taking creatine monohydrate? Many studies have looked into the effects of muscle cramping during a creatine cycle with varying results. However, general knowledge and common sense provides a scientifically and now accepted reason for this. One of the ways creatine works is to super hydrate the muscles making them repair and recover more easily and be more prepared for a continual workload. This means that extra water must be consumed when taking creatine to compensate for the action of the supplement. If not enough water is taken and the body and muscles become dehydrated, cramps will occur, whether in the presence of creatine or not. So if cramps do occur during creatine monohydrate supplementation it is not a side effect of the product itself, merely a side effect of being dehydrated! Creatine monohydrate and Stomach Discomfort side effects? Because creatine particularly in its monohydrate form is particularly concentrated, some users report having stomach discomfort if they happen to take creatine doses too close together during the initial ‘loading’ phase. Of course this is easily solved by spacing your creatine doses appropriately or reducing the doses if they become a burden on your stomach, everyone is different. These are the main concerns people have towards creatine, all of which as you can see are either minor concerns or the result of hearsay. In mine as in the opinion of many, the benefits of creatine monohydrate far outweigh any supposed side effects people may have invented.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Build Muscle Mass – 3 Key Ingredients to Building Lean Muscle Mass QuicklyIf you’re anything like I was a short while ago, “a skinny guy trying to build muscle mass”, then I have some important tips that could help you start seeing results instantly. There are 3 key ingredients that you MUST HAVE in order to build muscle mass and quickly at that. And here they are: Muscle Mass Ingredient #1 – More Protein If you want to build muscle mass quickly then this is a “must”. Just remember, the only thing that can build muscle in your body is Protein. So if you’re not consuming enough protein it’s IMPOSSIBLE to build lean muscle mass and stack on the pounds. In order to maintain your weight, you should be consuming 1 gram of protein for each pound of body weight. So if you’re a 150 lb. guy then in order to maintain your muscle mass at that weight you need to consume 150 grams of protein each day. And if you want to build muscle mass, you’re going to have to consume “more” protein, to not only maintain the muscles you have now but to build more. So if you want to build muscle mass quickly and safely a general rule of thumb is to consume 1 – 2 grams of protein for each pound of body weight. So if you’re a 150lb. guy you’d want to consume at least 150 grams of protein upward to 300 grams of protein a day. Muscle Mass Ingredient #2 – More Carbs Despite what Dr. Atkins said, for all us skinny guys “Carbs are GOOD”. We need carbs as a source of energy. But you don’t want to consume just any ‘ol carbs. You want to consume a lot of complex carbs rather than simple carbs. In other words, you still want to stay away from the sweets and simple sugars that are found in a lot of our junk food, and you want to consume more complex carbs like those found in whole wheat bread, brown rice, sweet potatoes, whole grain cereals, yams, spinach etc. Why complex carbs? Because unlike simple carbs (sugars) it’s virtually impossible to turn complex carbs into fat – which means more energy to burn (work out with) and less fat to deal with in the end. If you want to build muscle mass fast, ideally you’d want to consume 2 – 3 grams of carbs for each pound of bodyweight a day. Muscle Mass Ingredient #3 – Heavy Weight Training You cannot build muscle mass without “Heavy weight training”. Let’s just put it this way “the more stress (heavy weight) you put on your muscles, the more it will grow”. And it’s simply because when you put extreme stress on your muscle by lifting heavy weights, your body responds (builds more muscle) so that next time it won’t be as hard or strenuous on your body to lift the same weight. Ideally, if you want to build muscle mass – lean muscle mass to be more specific, you’d want to lift weights that allow you to do 6-8 reps and no more. Of course there’s a whole lot more to building muscle mass, but if you follow these 3 key ingredients you’ll be on the road to building lean muscle mass quickly and a whole lot easier than you ever thought possible. Good luck and grow “Massive”. Copyright 2006 Richard Knight
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Muscle Mass Building Workout – The Key ExercisesIf you’re interested in fast ways to build muscle and gain weight in record time, naturally you should ask yourself: “What are the best muscle mass building exercises to accomplish this?” The answer is simple, but because the market is flooded with so much garbage all you hear or read about is either the latest supplement or “advanced” exercises. If real, solid, steel-like muscles are what you want then anytime you are introduced to a “new” or “advanced” way of performing an exercise, you’ll do yourself a world of good by throwing it out the window. Too many times do I see curious skinny gym members look over at the “gym buff” doing some funky exercise upside down on an exercise ball with one leg up flailing a pair of light dumbbells around thinking that if they learned how to perform that exercise they can look like him. Forget about it. Whether it works for him or not is irrelevant, the bottom line is that this type of exercise or anything like it will NOT work for hardgainers. If an exercise is “new” I can almost guarantee it is far less effective then the simple, basic muscle mass building exercises. Why? Because all of the best exercises for maximum muscle growth have already been accounted for years ago. They have and always will be the number one exercises for the single purpose of how to gain muscle weight fast. Nothing compares and they will never be bested. Basic or compound exercises allow you to lift more weight, and the heavier weight you can lift, the bigger you will be. With that in mind, what are compound exercises and which are the best for maximum muscle mass? Compound lifts, or multi-joint lifts, are weightlifting exercises that force you to use more then one muscle group, preferably 3 or more. For example, the bench press is a compound lift because although the primary muscle used is the chest muscle, your shoulders and triceps are also helping to lift the weight. Tricep pushdowns, however, are what’s called an isolation or single-joint exercise. Since this exercise just isolates a single muscle, your triceps, it doesn’t stimulate nearly as much muscle growth as a compound lift would. Though there are many different compound exercises, you must focus only on those that stimulate the most amount of muscle and allow you to lift the heaviest amount of weight. Here are the granddaddy of all compound muscle mass building exercises that you MUST include in your workout if you expect to build maximum muscle mass in the least amount of time: 1) Squats (quads, hamstrings, calves, and also has an effect on most of the upper body) 2) Deadlifts (hamstrings, quads, traps, lower back) 3) Bench Press (chest, triceps, and shoulders) 4) Shoulder Press or Military Press (shoulders and triceps) 5) Bent-Over Rows (back, biceps, lats) 6) Pull-Ups (back, biceps, lats) 7) Bar Dips (chest, triceps, shoulders) If your workout programs to gain muscle don’t include any of these exercises, then don’t expect to grow very much, and don’t expect to grow at all if you are a hardgainer. Try starting your workouts out with one of these exercises first, before you do any other exercises for that same muscle. This will ensure you exert most of your energy into the most important exercises, the ones that will be most responsible for your growth. For example, if you are training your shoulders, start off with the barbell shoulder press before you do any laterals, shrugs, or any other isolation exercise. A couple of months ago, a friend asked me why he wasn’t gaining any weight and getting any bigger. So I asked him to tell me about his workout. You can probably guess what it was. Sure enough, he was doing about five exercises for each muscle group, mostly isolation exercises. He wasn’t doing any lower body exercises whatsoever, and the only compound exercise he was doing was everybody’s favorite: the bench press. So here is what I did: I gave him a simple but proven workout program for fast results that consisted of ONLY compound exercises, which in fact doesn’t look too much different from the list of muscle mass building exercises above. I told him to just do a few sets of each exercise a few times a week and to focus on just adding weight to the bar every week. Did he grow? About five weeks later he e-mailed me back and told me of his improvements. He weighed 18 pounds heavier and added around 20 to 30 pounds to each of the compound exercises I told him to do. Is this a common result? Those who are willing to work hard on just a few compound exercises can expect results like this, even hardgainers. Was it easy? No. He worked hard, just like everyone else who got results like this. No fancy supplements or advanced exercises, just hard work on the key muscle mass building exercises, lots of clean food and plenty of rest. Now that you know the key muscle mass building exercises for maximum muscle growth in record time, I want you to use them! If you haven’t tried any of them before then you will be in for a treat. They’re tough, they’re demanding, they take sweat and grit and everything you got. They’re not the type of exercises you can do while you hung-over or on 3 hours of sleep. You have to have lots of energy, be properly warmed up, and fully concentrated if you want to get the most out of them. But they will bring you more results then all of the other exercises put together.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Gain Muscle Mass – One Tiny Mistake That Can “Zap” Your Muscle Gains Away InstantlyIf you’re trying to gain muscle mass and quickly at that, there’s one teeny tiny mistake you can be doing right now that can literally “zap” your hard earned muscle gains into thin air. What’s this teeny tiny yet commonly seen mistake called – one word “Cardio”, but to be more specific “Excessive Cardiovascular Activity”. Now don’t get me wrong “cardio” has its place and should definitely be in your workout routine whether you’re trying to gain muscle mass or not. Before I tell you why you should limit your cardiovascular activity, let me tell you why you “need” cardio. One of the major benefits of Cardio (Cardiovascular activity) is that it helps build a stronger heart, which is extremely important when you’re putting your body through strenuous activity like weight training to gain muscle mass for example. Cardio also helps prevent heart disease and several other serious and potentially fatal heart related issues. Now with that said, here’s why you want to stay as far away from “excessive cardiovascular activity” as possible. By “excessive cardiovascular activity”, I’m referring to activities like long distance running, swimming, cycling – basically anything that’ll raise your heart rate for long periods of time. And it’s simply because “cardio” especially “excessive cardio” like running, cycling and swimming for long periods of time (anywhere from an hour and up) you’re going to burn way too many “valuable” calories. And when you’re trying to gain muscle mass, calories are extremely important. Why? – Because calories is basically “fuel” for the body. Now take a guess at what happens when your body starts to run out of calories to burn (low on fuel) because you burned it all up doing “excessive cardio”. It starts to break down the protein in your body for energy. And do you know where most of the protein in your body is found – the same muscles you’re trying to gain muscle mass with. So basically if you’re constantly performing “excessive cardio” and you don’t consistently replenish the calories you’ve just burned, your body will eventually break down the protein found in your muscles (basically eat away at your muscles) as its source of energy. And thereby “zapping” your hard earned muscle gains into thin air. So if you’re trying to gain muscle mass try to stay away from excessive cardiovascular activity like running, swimming, basically anything that’ll push your heart rate up for extended periods of time. But if for some reason you have to (maybe you’re on a sports team of some sort for example) make sure you intake the amount of calories you burn and then some. Simply to make sure your body doesn’t try to eat away at your muscle mass that you worked hard for as its new source of energy. So remember when you’re trying to gain muscle mass, “excessive cardiovascular activity” is not your friend. Copyright 2006 Richard Knight
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Starting A Body Building ProgramHaving an impressive physique is of high importance in the aesthetic-obsessed world of today. To that end, you can start a body building program in the courtesy of your own home for little to no money! Keeping in shape increases your sexual appeal and aids your body in maintaining a proper level of health. If you’re looking to build a base for yourself before getting into heavy lifting, push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups can greatly increase your level of fitness. Try to do three sets of these exercises every other day, giving your body the opportunity to rest and rebuild. After a few months, you should note a remarkable difference in your physique; your arms, chest, and abs should all be much more refined even after a small period of time. Once you feel that you’ve reached the limit of what you can gain from these exercises, it may be a good idea to invest in a weight-lifting bench and some free weights. If you can’t afford to get new equipment, it can be a good idea to look in the classified ads. Many people begin to work out in the home but fail to follow through on the plans, giving you ample opportunity to get some rarely-used equipment for a much cheaper price. Online auctions represent another viable opportunity when it comes to purchasing your own equipment. Once you start working out with free weights, it’s a good idea to find a workout partner; a ‘spot’ is required for some of the heavier lifts that are performed in a body building routine and without a spot, you can run the risk of serious injury. Another important aspect of the home gym that is often neglected is nutrition. While some people have no qualms about lifting all hours of the day, the benefits that they gain may be lessened due to an unhealthy diet. Bodybuilders should focus on a diet that is high in protein; meats such as chicken offer an abundance of this key compound, and you can supplement your protein consumption via workout shakes that are available for sale at any major health-food store. Gym memberships can be expensive; by simply buying your own workout set-up, you can save a whole lot of money without even having to leave the house! A mirror is also a good idea for a workout room; the more that you see the progress you’ve made in the mirror, the further inspired you’ll be when it comes to getting even stronger.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Avoiding A Bench Press Blowout – Rotator Cuff TrainingAnother article about the bench press you ask? Whether you agree or not the barbell bench press is one of the most highly regarded weight room exercises period. Have you heard this conversation in the gym lately? “So how much weight can you use for preacher curls?” “I’m moving some heavy weight, how much can you use for kickbacks?” “I’ve been struggling on those and I have a kickback meet coming up in a few months!” I’ll take a wild guess and say this conversation has never and will never take place. The truth is the vast majority of individuals measure their strength and even their manhood based on how much they can bench. You could be at the gym, or even at a bar having a beer but when the topic of working out comes up people are almost certain to ask the infamous question, “How much you bench?” If you don’t care how strong you are then I don’t know why you’re lifting weights anyway. The bench press is a benchmark of your strength plain and simple. Back to the conversation we didn’t hear at the gym. What our friends above should have been asking each other isn’t how much weight they use when doing kickbacks but rather how much weight they use when they’re performing a lower pulley external rotation exercise. Did I lose you there? I know, I know we declared the bench press is the true measure of our strength not all these isolation and stabilizer exercises right? This is true, but have you ever heard the expression, you’re only as strong as your weakest link? When you bench press there are four tiny muscles that play a major role in whether your bench press takes off or if you’re going to suffer from a bench press blowout. Build these muscles up and you can dramatically decrease the chance of blowing out your shoulder. If you’re benching heavy weight and not paying attention to these muscles you run the risk of muscular imbalances, shoulder pain, and getting stuck in a serious plateau. When bench pressing it essential to have stability and strength in the shoulder. The four relatively small muscles predominantly responsible for stabilizing the shoulder – teres minor, infraspinatous, supraspinatous and sucscapularous – are known collectively as the ‘rotator cuff’. When these muscles contract they pull on the rotator cuff tendon, causing the shoulder to rotate. While bench pressing you may experience some rotator or shoulder pain, during part of the movement. This is likely due to weak muscles in this area. Weak muscles are often but not always the cause of rotator cuff impingement syndrome and associated rotator cuff tears. If you have the rotator cuff strength of a little girl, your body has no choice but to limit the amount of weight you can stabilize and move to prevent injury. It’s not uncommon to see an individual break through a bench press sticking point simply by incorporating direct rotator cuff training. OK maybe now I have your attention. So how do you make sure your rotator cuff isn’t the weak link in your bench press? Or even more importantly how will you prevent a bench press blowout where you damage the rotator cuff? Like we discussed you need to strengthen the muscles, so let’s take a look at this workout routine. Remember if you already have an injury you should not use this routine as a rehab program but rather visit a sports medicine physician. If you want to prevent a future injury and break past a bench press sticking point then follow this routine twice a week. If you’re not in pain now, that’s an even better reason to follow my advice. Trust me if you have a nagging injury you’re not going to be growing or getting any stronger. Train smart, so that you can hit the weight hard when you do bench. The first thing you need to do is stretch the muscles you are about to train. Make sure you have warmed up for a good five minutes on the bike or treadmill before you start stretching. This will help you acquire greater flexibility. You already know stretching is important so just do it. You don’t need any equipment for this stretch. You can do it one arm at a time or with both arms at the same time. Extend your arms out from the torso at a right angle. Now bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle. Place your forearms on the frame of the doorway and lean forward. You will feel the stretch in your pecs and the back of your shoulders. Hold the stretch for 20-30 seconds. Next I want you to hang from a pull up bar for 20-30 seconds. This isn’t a grip strength test so no you don’t have to hang on for the full 30 seconds. Cuban Press Rotation Grab an EZ Curl bar and perform a wide grip upright row until the bar is a few inches below your collar bone. Now keep your elbows stationary while you externally rotate the bar as if you were trying to tap your forehead. Next you will press the bar overhead. Lower the weight along the same plane and repeat for ten reps. You will not be able to use the same weight you use for standard overhead presses due to the external rotation. This exercise won’t build your ego right now, but you’ll be thanking me when your bench press increases. Cable External Rotation Raise the pulley until it is even with your elbow. You’ll be standing sideways next to the weight stack so if your right hand is holding the handle, your left foot should be closest to the weight stack. Grasp the cable attachment with your far arm while keeping your elbow close to your side and forearm across your stomach. Your palm should be facing in. Pull cable attachment away from body by externally rotating your shoulder. Return and repeat. Turn around and continue with opposite arm. Cable Internal Rotation Again raise the pulley until it is even with elbow. You’ll be standing sideways next to the weight stack but this time if your right hand is holding the handle your right foot should be closest to the weight stack. Grasp the cable attachment with the closest arm. Keep your elbow close to your side with your palm facing in. Pull the cable attachment across your body by internally rotating your shoulder. Return and repeat. Turn around and continue with opposite arm. 90-Degree Dumbbell External Rotation To finish off the infraspinatus, hold a dumbbell in each hand, and perform a lateral raise to 90-degrees while keeping the elbows bent at 90-degrees. Once your upper arms are parallel to the floor, externally rotate your arm so that your forearms are perpendicular to the floor. It will look like starting point of a dumbbell military press. Now lower and repeat. Remember to use light weight. The infraspinatus is a tiny muscle so it can’t handle a heavy load. The shoulder horn is a great piece of equipment that keeps your arms in place while you perform this motion. Do three sets of ten repetitions for each exercise. Perform the routine once a week in conjunction with your current workout. This is important so listen up. The last thing you want to do is pre-exhaust your rotator cuff before training the bench press. Never do this workout prior to a heavy bench press or shoulders session or you run an even greater risk of aggravating the area. You can give these exercises a try at the end of your workout, but be sure you always give your rotator cuff muscles 48-hours rest after a workout before training chest or shoulders. Points To Remember: The muscles of the rotator cuff are very small. Even if you’re pushing five bills on the bench press you’ll still be using five-pound dumbbells for many rotator cuff exercises. So leave your ego at the door! Avoid lat pulldowns and military presses behind the head as they place the shoulder in a poor biomechanical position which enourages impingement. Training your rotator cuff muscles can help you avoid pain, prevent future injuries, and fix muscular imbalances. It’s not uncommon for a trainee to add 20+ pounds to their bench press simply by strengthening the rotator cuff muscles. Never perform a rotator cuff routine prior to bench pressing or overhead pressing movements. If you feel serious pain in your shoulder it may be too late. Go see a sports medicine physician. We all know people who were really into bodybuilding/powerlifting and looked forward to bench pressing only to eventually drop out after a few years of hardcore training. Why? In many cases nagging injuries especially those of the shoulder, simply took the fun out of it. This doesn’t have to happen to you so you’re ahead of the game. The best thing you can do to keep your shoulders healthy, and make sure your bench press continues to improve is strengthen your rotator cuff muscles so that they will never be your weakest link! After all your bench press will be going nowhere fast if you’re injured. Pick up the girlie weights for a few sets once a week so you’ll experience a bench press blastoff instead of a bench press blowout.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments How To Achieve Tummy Tucking In Muscle Building!Many people do not like the shape of their tummy, so they tend to look for ways to tuck in the tommy to match their physique. Working on the tummy or abdomen need some form of exercises that you should do to achieve a properly and strengthened muscles in your abdomen. However, your attention should not be on only on trimming your tummy. It should include an overall balance in the muscle system. Working out to trim the tummy muscle should be a program that includes the whole muscle system in your body. For instance you will need to plan your diets and the exercise you will be engaging yourself in. In your dieting plan, learn to cut down on your fats intake. Limit high fatty foods like carbohydrate and oil. When exercising include resistance exercise as part of your regimen, this will help you to work the muscles around your waistline and the muscles in your tummy. In the gym, you can find different machines for helping you to tuck your tummy while sculpting the body. The following are the machines: – AB boards Each of the machines help in a variety of ways to sculpt the body and trim or tuck the tummy. However, it should be understood that all areas of your body should be taken into consideration to build a muscle sculpted body. The exercise routine you will be embarking on should be congruent to your diet plan. You should know that dieting does not mean you fast or cut down on the food you eat. Instead you should understand the proper dieting or requirements your body need for any particular body building workouts and eat accordingly. There may be times you will need to make adjustments in your meals when you find a better and fitting dieting plan for your body. At this stage you already know that there are food types that the digestive system can not do without. Food types like proteins, carbohydrate, fats etc are all needed in the body. But what quantity do you need of each of them to reach your goal of sculpting the muscle is what you would want to pay proper attention to. Find out this information and use it to your advantage. Enzymes in the body works on the protein in the body and can not survive without them. The growth hormone in the body is aided by the amount of protein in the body. Athletes need protein for the growth and development of the muscle tissues. Consequently if the body is not getting adequate protein in the right proportions, you will not be able to reach your goals in either sculpting your muscle, or trimming the muscles of your tummy. All that being said, proper research and learning as well as application should precede any workout exercise and dieting to help in your body building activity.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Pitfalls of PerfectionDiscover why perfectionism is an illusion that de-motivates you and traps your mind… Read on to discover how you can use perfectionism in your favor to increase your success and happiness in anything you do What is perfection? There are some positive and negative aspects to perfectionism. This article will help you keep the best parts and ditch the bad sides…So, read on. First, perfection is an illusion. It doesn’t exist. Why? Because no matter how good you are you can always improve. Always. Even when you don’t think you can improve anything. For an example, even if a baseball player belts a homerun, he could still hit the ball further… Even if you make a million dollars a month, you could increase that to 2 million month. Instead of thinking of perfection as a destination… think of perfection as a direction… it’s an ideal. A guide. This is a small but big difference. With this mindset, there is always room for upgrades. You can always improve something in your diet… EVEN IF YOU DON’T EAT ANY JUNK! How? By switching good food with better food. What about your training? You can always improve your form… Even after 20 years of consistent training So, it’s great to have a perfect ideal to help you evolve. Perfection pitfall #1: Ambition lobotomy This is the pitfall of thinking you are perfect How much drive to improve do you feel when you think you can’t improve? NONE. ZERO. NADA. Instead look for the constraints — The weaknesses. And then create system upgrades. There’s always loads of room for improvements. Perfection Pitfall #2: You’re never happy. This is the pitfall of thinking you are NEVER perfect. It’s easy to get so caught up with improvements and reaching perfection that you lose the joy of the moment… You sacrifice the power of now for the future. You finance your happiness for something that doesn’t exist. The only thing that exists is now. So… as your striving for perfection… smell the roses… live the moment and feel the joy & power of NOW. Perfection Pitfall #3: Perfection Paralysis… This is perhaps the most fatal flaw in perfectionism… analysis paralysis. Lets say you want to write a book… when is it done? On your 3rd edit? On your 10th edit? Or on your 60th edit like author Frank R Wallace? The choice is yours. You decide what your “standard of quality” is. But, realize that you can always improve your creations… I recommend that you adopt the… ACTION OVER PERFECT MINDSET This is very, very powerful… Especially for classic perfectionists… Many of these people never accomplish anything. They are TRAPPED by their mindset. They never want to risk doing something without it being perfect. Sometimes you just got to shoot now… and aim later. You’ll eventually hit the bull’s eye. So, here are the key points… Realize nothing is perfect and that you can always improve. But, don’t lose the power of now. It’s the only place where perfection can be FELT and experienced. Finally, take action. Lots of it. Life is movement. So, if your goal is to build & world-class body… train smart… improve your eating & supplement strategies… Most impotently, enjoy the ride!
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Building Muscle Mass Tips and SecretsBuilding muscles mass is an easy task to achieve as long as you are armed with the correct information and knowledge. Building mass faster, which you thought is impossible, is never far from reality. There are too many trainers and bodybuilders that make the fatal mistake of working out too much. They think, the longer they workout the bigger muscle mass they get. Even if you want to build up that muscle mass quickly, strength training and weight training for long hours is not that necessary. However, for those hard gainers who are in strength training programs, to gain muscle mass quickly cannot be that detrimental. In fact, you should never train longer than an hour or half a day according to many bodybuilding experts. There are even instances that you may even lose too much weight doing long workouts and too much time performing weightlifting. The correct way of gaining muscle mass should be a proper strength training program with three days a week sessions with at least an hour of weightlifting and bodybuilding exercises. It is important to work on your muscles intensely and focus yourself on getting stronger. You should not be caught up on various bodybuilding programs that allow you to do long hours of working out and lifting. The risk of acquiring injuries is also at high risk. There are many ways on how to gain muscle mass the proper way. We are not talking here with intensity strength training but a proper way of training to failure that is very efficient to building muscle mass. Here are some suggested tips: 1. Using a bench press, continue your exercise against the immovable heavy weight for 20 to 30 seconds. For most hard trainers, they do the wrong way of starting again with the rep and being stuck at the bottom. The weight is dropped against the safety pins. 2. Using the barbell curls, perform a grinding halt about two or three inches into the rep. when the arms a slightly bent, you have realized that you cannot perform the rep but perform a pull on the bar as long as your strength can. 3. In a bodybuilding exercise, squatting is very effective. It is considered as the perfect exercise in building muscle mass. While others do intense trainings and bodybuilding diet program for muscle building, an effective squat program can be an effective exercise for muscle building. 4. After your warm ups and performing your squat routines, you may lift weight that you normally perform. Do 10 reps and rest for a while, you add another 20 reps to have a more efficient and intense weightlifting exercise. 5. Since squatting is the most challenging muscle building routine exercise, you need to maximize all the weight that you can handle. The squat is also the toughest mental exercise after the physical training exercises that you perform. These muscle building tips are very effective ways to gain muscle mass quickly. They can be important factors to for your weight training program and eventually seeing your muscle mass develop and improve quickly. Weight lifting is also even more effective for individuals who go through a weight loss program than those who are dieting and doing aerobic exercises.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments Get Fast Results – Tips to Successful Bodybuilding for BeginnersWith so many ads and free bodybuilding regimen in magazines and the Internet, it is easy to go wrong. DO NOT use the bodybuilding regimen of professional bodybuilders when you start off. Begin slowly. It is natural to be enthusiastic at this stage. But your body needs only 3 non-consecutive days of workout a week. To be successful, your bodybuilding regimen needs to focus on:
Mastering technique is the most important part of a beginner’s routine. If you are doing the right exercise in the wrong way, you are wasting your time. Once you have mastered the technique, you can push your body harder and do the number of recommended reps. This way you can achieve more number of reps without having to worry about injury. Gaining muscle mass is not just about exercising. This has to be coupled with a bodybuilding diet. Good nutrition is an important part of your muscle building program. You should ideally be having five or six small meals a day. Here are some changes you need to make:
The best time to work out is in the morning, on an empty stomach. Your body needs food after the workout because your last meal would probably have been 8-10 hours before the exercise. So, you should NEVER miss your post workout meal. Your ideal diet should include potatoes, rice, pasta, lean red meat, egg whites, banana, turkey, cottage cheese and tuna. Natural fats like natural peanut butter, olive oil and flaxseed oil are good because they are rich in monounsaturated fats. Warm up before you start your bodybuilding exercises. Perform all exercises through their full range of motion. Keep your movements slow and controlled. This will help keep resistance on the muscles. You may need to rest between exercises, especially in the beginning. There are a number of exercises that you can choose from to build the body of your dreams. For the exercises to work in peak form, you need to cycle the exercises so that all the major muscles receive their fair share of resistance training. Change the sets, switch the order of body parts, choose different exercises and vary the rest time between sets. Do not start on any supplements right away. The need for supplements comes in only after you hit a plateau – the stage when you are doing all the right things, but not seeing any results. While bodybuilding success depends on pushing the limits, never ignore pain. Set small and achievable goals. Do not give up. Remember bodybuilding is not just about exercises, it is a lifestyle in itself. Bodybuilding is serious business. So, the first thing you have to do is get a physical done. It is absolutely essential to ensure that all your organs are in perfect working order. A healthy heart, liver and kidneys are a must if you dream of body building success. Your hormonal balance also plays a very important part in bodybuilding.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments How to Get a Six Pack FastAh, all men dream of a six pack. We may not admit it, but we do. Whether we find it aesthetically pleasing or not, it is indisputable that a six pack symbolises something far more important: ultimate body sculpting, and all that goes with it — hard work, ambition, drive, skill. However, knowing how to get a six pack fast is one thing, actually getting one is something else. The six pack is comprised of the abdominal muscles. Notice the word “muscles” in that sentence. If you want a great looking pair of biceps, what do you do? You lift weights doing bicep curls in order to make them more prominent. If you want a firm, strong chest, what do you do? You do bench presses to increase the muscle. Getting a six pack is no different — if you want your abs to be prominent and well-defined, then you need to work them. However, you can work your abdominals to death, but they will never present themselves if they have a layer of fat covering them. You see, muscles only become visible and defines as long as they are not buried in fat. This is an amazingly simple principle, yet an astonishing number of people completely overlook it. For some, just doing endless sit-ups and crunches should be enough to get a six pack and then they are left bemused when none show. Knowing how to get a six pack fast needn’t be a secret. The six pack is probably the most prized aesthetic look precisely because it is the hardest to achieve. Our arms don’t appear to be our body’s favourite storage space for fat so, consequently, we can build the visibility of our bicep and forearm muscles very quickly. Even a morbidly obese individual could display them after a bit of work. Our legs are slightly more prone to fat but, again, you can see muscle definition fairly quickly. The stomach area is where we put out fat and, unfortunately, represents the hardest task to accomplish. Here’s the thing — you can work your abs for months, doing countless reverse curls, crunches and sit-ups. It’s highly likely that in that time, you will have built a fine-looking six pack. But unless you have removed the fat on top of the six pack, it will never be visible. Now, losing weight isn’t enough to get the stomach fat off. Again, look for the keyword in the sentence — “fat”. Weight is made of two forms, fat and muscle. If you wish to know how to get a six pack fast, then you need to understand the importance of treating each sub-category of weight properly. You will want to build muscle and burn fat. Muscle is dense and requires an awful lot of calories to keep it going — so if you build a pound of muscle, you will pay for that by burning fat. Like it or not, you will have to hit the weights, and hit them hard. You will also have to eat clean, and ensure your body fat percentage goes down steadily. This can be accomplished in a fast period of time, assuming you aren’t in terrible physical condition to begin with (it helps if you have less than 15 lbs to lose). It is no good going from 180 lbs to 160 lbs if you are losing fat and muscle, because a significant percentage of the fat will continue to cover your abs. You need to ensure that the vast majority of weight lost is fat. If you can nail that combination of building muscle, working the abs, and dieting to lose fat, then you could see a six pack in very fast time. Of course, it goes without saying that the harder you hit the weights and the more disciplined you are with your diet, the faster you will accomplish your goal. Suck it up and get it done, and you too can rip off your shirt and beam with pride.
October 29, 2006 | Articles | No Comments |
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